Have you ever wondered why advertisements from the ancient times of black-and-white television are so different from modern-day advertising? Instead of wholesome slogans and or descriptions of how great a product is, companies now post memes on Twitter, make references to the latest Gen Z culture, and generally try to be “relatable” to their audience. The rise of the Internet and social media networks in the 21st century introduced the possibility of virality (being able to be widely circulated), where a well-positioned marketing campaign could spread to every corner of the Internet and result in a massive increase in brand recognition among consumers almost overnight. This fundamentally changed the optimal way to advertise: appeal to relatability and social/emotional arenas began to take precedence over appeal to objective reason. In some cases, this new form of “neo-advertising” can lead to great success for the companies using them; however, at times, they flop in spectacular ways.
Modern advertising fails are particularly common in social media marketing, especially when companies attempt to inject “hip” humor into ads. This social media marketing craze began in 2017 when Wendy’s began to use a provocative, Gen-Z style of tweeting to enforce brand “personality,” resulting in nearly a 50% growth in profit. However, this style of social media marketing is quickly beginning to annoy consumers. For example, we showed a recent Twitter ad from McDonald’s to Belmont Hill students and asked them 1) if they thought it was cringe, and 2) if it made them want to buy the product more. All participants responded “yes” to the first question, and “no” to the second. While the ad certainly didn’t deter students from going to McDonalds in the future, it certainly didn’t incline them to go more frequently. In other words, the ad’s sole contribution was to remind students of McDonald’s existence. This personality that companies attempt to develop to be more “hip with the kids” ends up coming across as hollow and money-driven rather than funny, having lost any authenticity that came with the original Wendy’s phase; no one wants to see Domino’s proclaiming that “pizza hits harder at 2 am” or Burger King asking users for “pick-up lines that are cheesier than our tots” on Twitter because it’s clearly not genuine and no longer unique.
In addition to developing their corporate “personality” on Twitter, companies have now begun to take sides in America’s ongoing culture war as part of their marketing efforts. Some companies have done this to great effect, such as Nike’s Colin Kaepernick campaign, which ABC News reports to have led to a 10% increase in sales over that quarter. This worked because Nike was able to understand its customer base (mostly young liberals), something that many companies are unable to do. The iconic example of failed political advertising is Anheuser-Busch, which used transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney in a marketing campaign for its Bud Light beer products. Rather than recognizing its consumer base as primarily blue-collar and conservative, Anheuser-Busch hired the contentious transgender TikToker, resulting in many conservatives boycotting the brand, and Bud Light’s revenue falling 13% from July to September according to Fortune. It’s not just Bud Light who falls victim to this blunder: Disney’s shift to promote progressive values within its content has alienated conservative fans and has ultimately caused its box office revenue to plummet. Fashion and clothing companies/publications such as Victoria’s Secret and Sports Illustrated have attempted to include overweight models to the detriment of their brands. This is a cautious lesson for any corporation that wants to get involved with America’s political firestorm: Make sure that your consumer base agrees with you before you speak.
Overall, modern marketing is here to stay. Realizing the potential to utilize virality, companies adopted new marketing techniques to create an online presence. At times, this can result in great success and an extremely strong brand image, as Wendy’s and Nike have achieved. At times, this can be meaningless and inauthentic, as McDonald’s and Bud Light should have come to realize. However, the authors of this article personally hope to see less of this style of marketing in the future, and a more objective presentation of the products and why they are better than competitors’ alternatives, in accordance with capitalist principles.
